Facism takes a step forward

Listen. That sound you hear in the distance, are the jackboots marching toward the future. For anybody who has ever wanted to send me a tin foil hat when I tell you that Bush has a contingency plan to declare martial law and suspend the elections in 08, consider this quote, via Crooks and Liars, that comes from a recent presidential radio address:

One freedom that defines our way of life is the freedom to choose our leaders at the ballot box. We saw that freedom earlier this week, when millions of Americans went to the polls to cast their votes for a new Congress. Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world by holding elections even in a time of war." (emphasis added)…

Freudian slip? I mean, since when has that ever been a question? As Bob Cesca put it at the HuffPo:

When elections are no longer a given in the mind of the president, it stands to reason that the possibility of somehow canceling future elections might've crossed his mind. And why wouldn't it? He has the tools. He has the National Guard positioned in every state under his control. He can legally disappear and torture anyone he chooses. He can use legal (yet unconstitutional) means to gather information about political opponents to smear and shame them. The president has unprecedented power to do almost anything he wants and the unwavering support of both a major cable news network and, on the fringe, would-be domestic terrorists.

So really. Who the crap needs another Sedition Act? The president is toting a Crawford holster filled with far better tools as he plummets head first into two years of harried political conflict -- the fluttering and charred remains of the Constitution forming a cloud of dust in his wake.

...For me, it's on this issue that I will judge our new Congress. Iraq, energy, global warming, ethics and election reform, and the economy (the debt and middle class tax cuts) are, in tandem, gathered in a close second place. But none of these issues can be addressed until the democratic balance of power is wrested from the hands of the totalitarian tools in the White House and beyond.

That's on my top of my list of agenda items too, along with verified voting and closing the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street. Until we disempower the reckless, power hungry miscreants who are currently piloting our ship of state straight into the reefs of corruption, everything else we do is fruitless.